Hike #1487; Rosendale to Ohioville

5/30/22 Rosendale to Ohioville with Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Weider, Robin Deitz, Professor John DiFiore, Stephen Argentina, and Jennifer Berndt

 This next trip would be a point to point bringing us back to the Shawangunks of New York for the first time in quite a while.

I wanted to do something a bit more mountainous, but I also have been trying to have hikes planned that I can bring my son on in his stroller should I end up with him that day.
So, I had a plan on either doing the “Gunks”, or if little Ev was with me, I would end up doing more of Wallkill Valley Rail Trail.

I ended up not having the kid with me this time, and so the route ended up being the Gunks.

One of the reasons for doing this hike was just a simple bit of new trail that had been developed along the road in New Paltz NY. 

I had already done all of the Wallkill Valley Railroad from Montgomery, where I understand it ended at the station where it connected to the Erie Railroad, all the way north to Rosendale. The only segment of this railroad I had not walked yet was the section from Rosendale north to Kingston. I’d been putting that section off to use as part of my hike when we do the last bits of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which have also been put off for far too long.

This time, the meeting point and end point would be in Ohioville, which is just to the east of New Paltz along the Empire State Trail route. We had recently hiked the Maybrook Line of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad through the area, and completed that line. The Empire State Trail turns from that right of way in Ohioville and then follows some road side, some of which is on new paved trail, through New Paltz, and then turns to the north on the Wallkill Valley Railroad. I’d not walked the road section since it had been designated there.

We would then shuttle north to Rosendale NY, which was once the mined cement capital of the world. The mined and fired cement all came from underground mines through the vicinity at the end of the Shawangunks until the creation of Portland Cement in Coplay PA.

My starting point would be on Binnewater Road where there is parking along old cement kilns just across from the rail trail. We could then get on the trail and head to the south a bit.

I had found a four pack of the Industrial Arts Brewery’s Impact Wrench, a triple hazy IPA. It was pretty good, and I’d liked their stuff when we hiked to it on the Beacon Line hike the previous year. Plus, it was cold. I found it in a convenience store on the way up amazingly.

We made our way onto the railroad bed and started heading south, but immediately came upon the first cement mine just to the east side of the right of way.

The first of the mines was full of water, but just ahead a little bit to the south there was one that we could have gotten down into, but I didn’t want to take any chances, especially so early into the hike.

I had explored these cement mines to a great extent in the past. When I first got together with Jillane, we headed up to Rosendale to explore them, because she had already done it with the Abandoned Mines group. 

It was through her that I met my friend Cupcake, who is heavily involved in it. I ended up going back and exploring the mines much more extensively, but those guys had the safety thing down far better than me. I didn’t want to try to go down something like this without one of them present.

We continued ahead to the south a bit more, adjacent to Joppenberg Mountain, which is full of those cement mines.

Just a little ways more and we reached the magnificent Rosendale Trestle.

The first bridge here was built in 1872 for the Wallkill Valley Railroad, which was established in 1866. The line began at Campbell Hall and was completed to Kingston by the mid 1870s.

It fell into ownership of different lines including the New York Central over the years, but decline came in the 1930s. Passenger service ended in 1937.

The line remained open for freight service until 1982 when track removal began. Their claim was that the trestle was shifting below; the stanchions were moving off of their supports or something.

Local businessman John Rahl purchased the right of way in 1984 with hopes of establishing an excursion line on it. 

Work began on the decking of the Rosendale Trestle, and it was half open to pedestrians under private ownership until around 2010.

When I first visited the site with Jillane, Rahl had had half of the trestle decked for pedestrian use. It was simply planking with rails out to the center of the bridge, laid on top of the ties. It was safe and quite nice. I’d heard about Mr. Rahl and how he allowed for the railroad to be opened informally as a trail for years while he owned it.

In an unprecedented move, Ulster County moved against Mr. Rahl with condemnation proceedings, claiming the line was needed for utilities and new access to an adjacent prison property.

Eminent Domain is to be considered a last resort, only if absolutely needed, and many feel Ulster County did not prove such.

The land was taken, and Wallkill Valley Rail Trail was developed from Walden to Kingston. The access road was never built on the railroad bed, and though the trail was opened adjacent to the prison, it was closed to public, according to a guard we spoke to, after it was used in an escape. The trail is now two disjointed sections.

Some claim the acquisition was necessary to save $300,000 for prison utility route, but many still believe the acquisition of this railroad bed was abusive overreach.

When I began speaking out on the corruption of some of the rail trails in New York State, I made connections with some really great people throughout the area, and that was how I got connected to Mr. Rahl.

Mr. Rahl explained to me that he purchased a franchise, and that railroad law and the State of New York’s interpretation of law was quite askew. Attorneys don’t bother learning some of the more complicated railroad law, and try to make other laws applicable to railroads, which is quite questionable if it is legal or not.
There was apparently supposed to be further meetings and discussions between Mr. Rahl and Ulster County, but the county opted not to have these meetings and moved against Mr. Rahl.
Having dealt with Ulster County officials directly myself, I know that this story is not far-fetched. The county officials have been bullies when it comes to the rail trail initiatives, which was personally very disheartening as a trail advocate. I felt like people I had aligned myself with for years had turned against me simply because I am also a proponent of truth and fairness.

The incidents I dealt with for being outspoken led to harassment, threats, a fraudulent traffic ticket resulting in the loss of my license, and even a threat to my job if I didn’t shut up about it.
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me when it came to the Democratic party. I had aligned myself with that party for years regarding what was going on with Iraq and the Bush administration, but now it was prominent members of that party doing the threatening, lying, and conducting underhanded actions. I realized that neither party was perfect, and that the Democratic party that I felt betrayed me was stooping to the same level as what I’d hated on the Republican side years earlier.

 The handling of the virus situation, followed by several more major issues further cemented my feeling that the party had switched to being the worse one.

We continued to the south across the bridge, and we looked to the north at the Rondout Creek below. I pointed out where the Delaware and Hudson Canal used to go, and I set up another then and now history compilation of when the canal was still in place.
The canal was active starting in 1828 here, and then closed as a through route to Honesdale in 1899, but I understand some traffic continued up to maybe this far further into the 1900s.
As we walked across the bridge, touching the rail would send static electricity through our fingers.

We continued south from the bridge, across Mountain Road at grade, and then into the woods.

The Shawangunk Ridge, a formation that continues southwest across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, starts at the river in Rosendale and climbs gradually to great height.
My plan here was to try to walk to the north into the Mohonk Preserve. I didn’t have any of the new maps of the area, but google maps showed the trail going through.

Giant’s Ledges was the name of the little preserve turning directly off of the railroad bed at this point. We turned there and began to climb gradually.

The trail climbed gradually, and split a bit at the start, but then came back together. It was pretty well blazed, and the grade was such that for the first part, I could easily have brought the stroller through on it if I’d had Ev with me.

The climb was really great and relaxing. Because we were starting at the very start of the Shawangunk Ridge, we were climbing as the ridge slowly gained elevation, so it was never very tough.
We continued slowly up among the rocks and such, and then came to a Mohonk Preserve sign. It was saying not to go in at that point, but the trail weaved back to the left to Giant’s Ledge, which we were apparently allowed to do. We walked over to it, 380 ft above sea level, and took a break at the nice view.
After the good break, we continued back to the intersection and started following the trail ahead to the southwest.
We meandered between rocks and slowly climbed a bit more. The trail led up and down a bit, and I was a bit nervous about having some sort of a problem up there.

At one point, there was an old road that came up the ridge from the left, and then there was a woman riding a horse! At first we paused, because first I thought maybe it was some kind of ranger, and because I didn’t want us crazies to spook the horse. It turns out it was just a rider, not a problem.

We continued ahead, and there were a few more people hiking, who probably came in from another way also.

We eventually came to some sort of an old farm pond and dam on the right. This trail was barely ever used, and we had to step in water to get across this thing.

The trail climbed beyond that point and up to a slope high above the pond to our right, but not too much more elevation just yet.

We continued along, and the inlet to the pond became a bit of a dip in the valley. Somehow, we lost the trail, which had grown in at some point in a wet area. I think the old woods road was probably once part of the Old Canaan Road. I’m not sure, but maps today refer to it as the old Clearwater Road.
When we lost the trail, we had continued ahead along the streams to the east too far. 

I knew we were off based on what my aerial images and GPS were telling me, so I told everyone to wait behind while I went off to see if I could find the clear trail to the west.

After a bit of bushwhacking, I found the clearing. I called everyone to head directly toward me and we could begin climbing up Clearwater Road.
I started going ahead, and this was a longer and steeper climb than what we had done before. It made me realize just how out of shape I am.

I continued to push up the hill, and waited almost near the top. I didn’t want to connect with any of the more prominent trails and hang out there until we had almost everyone together. Jen was having a tough time with this hill so I waited for her to make her way up before we moved on.

Once we all got together, we headed up just a bit more, and then turned to the left on Northeast Ridge Trail to take us to the south.

The blue blazed trail continued to climb from this point over rocks, but the entire first segment afforded us great views to the Catskill Mountains to the north.

It was a steady climb, steep from time to time, but not too terrible. We definitely had to watch our footing though, because it was far from being a woods road.

We met a guy on his way up that was obsessed with finding some lady slippers growing in the trail, because he had heard that they were in the area. He had been looking like crazy. He was ahead of us, and then when we reached him again, he had happily finally found one.
We checked it out, then moved on a short distance ahead, and found another one. We shouted back to him there was another one. Then another, then another!
The blue trail went to the right ahead, and a rockier yellow trail went straight ahead toward the top of Bonicou Crag.

As we made our way up slope more over rocks toward Bonicou Crag, a promontory on the south side of the ridge that juts out, like a peninsula of rock from the edge of the mountain with great views in all directions.

There was first a view to the left as we approached the top, then to the right toward the Catskills again, which were at this point much more prominent. 

Then, we came to the amazing view to the southwest down Bonicou Crag. There was another trail to the right that broke away, and I could see to the right that the Bonicou Road was in close proximity and very easy walking. I figured we would head for there for a more relaxing walk out.

We took a long break on Bonicou Crag, and I walked all the way down to the southernmost end of it where there were 180 degree views. There were a ton of people up there, which was surprising because it was a long walk out there. There were a lot more people on the Northeast Trail as well. We noticed that many of them had temporary hand bracelets to have come in to hike.

Justin went right out on the edge of one of the overhanging rocks while others sat in the shade to relax a bit.

When we were finally ready to go, I figured it would be just a kind of steep trail down for a bit to the Northeast Trail again below, then slightly up to the woods road. I wasn’t prepared for what this trail would be.

The red blazed trail started out very steep, and then got steeper. I figured it wouldn’t get all that bad because there were so many people that didn’t look to be hikers in the area, and they have so many carriage roads that are quite easy, but this one was insane.

There were no ladders, and the trail went right down a vertical mess of rocks. We had to hold on tight and lower ourselves at one spot that could potentially be a deadly fall. 

One must really trust their arms to hold them finding a foot hold going down it, and being already fatigued is no condition to be doing it in.
When we got to that point, I didn’t think there was another way around, and so Stephen managed to get down and then hurried over the rocks to the shade at the bottom.

Justin and Brittany made it down the rocks carefully, but Robin looked at it and didn’t feel she could do it. I looked over the maps again, and saw a way that they could potentially make it back up, then follow another easier trail around. 

Robin, Jen, and John all took that route, and I was able to picture message a map of the NYNJ Trail Conference map of the area to John to be sure he was going the correct way.

The rest of us continued on down over the rocks. We actually had to wait for a while at the really steep section for other people on their way down, or others going up. When I did get down and helped our group down, I stayed back and helped a few others get down the rock. It was such a bad spot, it’s really frightening trying to get down without a spotter.

Once we were off the steep section, it still was rough going. The giant rocks had to be carefully navigated, and some of the steps down were pretty rough.

At one of the corners, there was a natural cave into the rocks. We continued down the slope to the sign and intersection with Northeast Trail where we all sat down for a break. 

We’d have to wait there for the other three to get there anyway, so I started going over the maps to make a plan.
While there, some other people who were not at all prepared for that climb came by us. They were coming right off of the Bonicou Road which barely has any elevation and we were able to warn them. They’d likely have come back down.
One guy went through with is very little daughter, and he said she goes right up those rocks like it’s nothing. Another guy had a few kids that all liked climbing up them. Granted, going up these rocks would be tons easier than coming down it was.

When the others finally caught up with us, we let them have a break for a bit too, and we discussed where we would be going.

We could go up to Bonicou Road, but then we would have to go more out of the way. We could otherwise stay on the foot path, Northeast Trail, and skirt the rest of the preserve, which would also be farther away from other patrons and in the shade.

Everyone seemed more keen on the foot path, and Jen wanted to get to the nearest road to be able to Uber out.

The trail wasn’t too bad and mostly followed land contours without a ton of elevation, but there were some ups and downs that were tough for some.
We passed Bonicou Path, which is the route of the Shawangunk Ridge Trail now, and continued straight on coaligned Northeast Trail and Shawangunk Ridge Trail in a segment I had never done.

From here, we made our way to a high point before descending to Mountain Rest Road. 

Jen told me to go ahead, which I didn’t want to do because I hated leaving her in the woods alone, but we were under a mile from the road. I let her know when she got to an abandoned road to turn left to get to a better spot on the road to get out.

We continued on the trail, which descended to that former alignment of Mountain Rest Road and turned right, opposite the way Jen would go.
We went up hill on this a bit more, and then skirted the edge of a meadow on the east side. Pretty soon, we came out to Mountain Rest Road and crossed directly. The Shawangunk Ridge Trail continued on the other side, this time co-aligned with the also blue blazed Woodside Trail.
This was a much more relaxing trail through quiet woods. We didn’t pass any more hikers for the rest of this stretch.

There were some abandoned and closed trails breaking off to the left, and I can’t help but wonder what they lead to and what they’re trying to hide from us. 

We passed some nice stone walls and foundations, skirted some nice shelf woods roads, and then passed an old house foundation.

There were more trails on the ground than there were in my out of date map, so we ended up following a route that took us back to the west again, weaved around over a brook, climbed a bit more, and then meandered through some more woods before it emerged on the old road known as Lenape Lane.

From here, the hike was just as pleasant as could be. We were gradually walking downward on an unpaved road. Jen was able to get picked up so I didn’t have to worry about her any more, and we could enjoy the remainder of the hike without worry.

We had previously hiked through this area before, but we had come from the southwest a bit more, closer to the Smiley Tower and Mohonk Mountain house on a past winter hike.

This time, we headed directly down through the Kleine Kill Farm.

We passed the farm house where there is still someone living. I’m not sure if the land is fully preserved or if it is just a tenant, but the area appeared to be pretty well kept. There were still bits of views straight ahead as we descended a bit. Somewhere in this vicinity, we had come in from the right the previous time we hiked here.

After a little bit, we came to the crossing of the Catskill Aqueduct, a nice clear route that is unfortunately closed to public.
The 92 mile aqueduct employs a combination of cuts, fills, and bits of ups and downs with siphons, completed in 1924.

When the New York Walk Book was first published in 1923, and for many years and many later additions, the Catskill Aqueduct was recommended among the great Hudson Valley hikes. At some point the entire route was closed to all pedestrian use, and we lost an incredible resource. My understanding was that it was closed to all walkers after 911.
People still walk it illegally, but face fines if caught. I feel strongly that if it were open to public, it would be more eyes and ears in case anything underhanded were to happen. There’s not much to stop anyone from going on it right now.
Just after passing over the aqueduct, there was an old stone structure without a roof off to the right. I think it might have had something to do with the aqueduct, but I’m not sure and I couldn’t find much about it.

We continued down a bit more and another road, Pine Road, went off to the left. At this intersection where there was more parking, there was a little shanty building manned by a young girl. 

Apparently they were taking tolls for entry into the park even at this middle of nowhere location. Since we were on our way out, we didn’t bother with her, and she didn’t bother to say anything to us either.

We continued down Lenape Lane, took another switchback to the left, and then at the next switchback to the right, the River to Ridge Trail, a relatively new development that follows Lenape Lane much of the way, turned off to the left. My understanding had been that it followed Lenape Lane all the way down to almost Butterville Road, but apparently not, or maybe it is two different alternatives.

We went straight on the crushed stone trail through the woods ahead, meandered back and forth and came out at Pine Road. We turned right there to follow the road to the east.

There was an old dilapidated barn along the left side of the road almost immediately.

This road was not shady, but it was quite beautiful out through pastoral lands. The hike had changed entirely from the deep woods and steep rocks on the ridge; we were now through agricultural lands and it was great.

As we looked back toward the ridge, we could see the Skytop Tower, also referred to as the Smiley Memorial Tower, at a point known as Paltz Point, of the Mohonk Preserve.

The tower was built in 1921 as a memorial to the late Albert Smiley, who built the Mohonk Mountain House and preserved the land with both enjoyment and stewardship in mind.

When we reached the bridge where the road crossed the Kleine Kill, John and I absolutely had to stop and take a dip.

There wasn’t a whole lot of water to immerse ourselves in, but we made the best of it and felt so much better cooling off and getting rid of all of the sweat from the tougher stuff before.

Before we reached the intersection with Butterville Road, part of the trail crossed. We turned left, crossed over a foot bridge in woods, and then turned right across Butterville Road, through a swath of trees, and then into wide open fields.

We climbed a bit through these fields, and reached a point where we could see both east and west. 

To the west, the Shawangunk Ridge was in clear view. Paltz Point and Skytop Tower dominated the ridge view, but also to the north a bit we could see the edge of Bonicou Crag. To the east, we were looking toward New Paltz, and some buildings on the hill above the Wallkill.

The trail split in two at the top, with a north and a south route. We opted for the south route at this point, which had a nice view moving ahead toward New Paltz.

The trail descended and crossed Lewis Lane, then skirted a little bit closer to the edges of fields, roughly parallel with Route 299 heading east. 

It would have actually been quicker to just walk the highway back to the bridge into New Paltz, but that wouldn’t be the trail and it would suck. Justin went over and walked the road anyway while the rest of us stayed on the trail.

Pretty soon we crossed over Springtown Road and reached a River to Ridge Trail parking lot. We continued through the lot and to the edge of the Wallkill. The trail turned south here.
I couldn’t go on just like that. I wanted to take another dip.
The shore was muddy and the approach wouldn’t be easy, but I made my way in. It dropped to well over my head almost immediately and I swam out a bit.
I was rather shocked quickly that the very still looking river actually had quite the current that was dragging me down. I decided I’d cooled off enough and climbed back out.

We continued along the trail along the river, and then came down to the bridge over the Wallkill. We turned left and crossed, and immediately on the other side crossed the Wallkill Valley Railroad again, with the old station to the left.
Route 299 becomes Main Street up through town from this point, back toward Ohioville. I remember thinking that this was going to suck. I had looked at this thinking that it would be just the next little link in the Empire State Trail series, but at this point I was no longer excited about doing it. I had already walked the route anyway, and it just felt senseless and tiring since we’d already done enough miles.

I didn’t give up though, and we continued walking through town to the east.

There were really no signs or designated trail route stuff going on until after we crossed the bridge over the Thru Way, Interstate 87. There was an abandoned building on the other side of the highway to the left that seems like it has been shut for years of walking or driving through here.
Pretty soon, there was a paved path on the right, and I went over to walk it briefly, although it was kind of pointless because we had to be on the north side of the road to get to the parking lot at the Ohioville area.

It was a relief to be back to the cars, and I was glad to have done something in the mountains like that again. We’d done a whole lot of easy stuff again, and I want to keep some things on the schedule that were in line with Tuscarora Trail and Standing Stone Trail, which we had done over the past years. This definitely provided some of that challenge I wanted to keep in there, and also made me realize there is still so much more to do up in the Mohonk area.